CIVIL SERVICE PENSIONS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1161, 2 November 1871, Page 2

CIVIL SERVICE PENSIONS.

JOTAtiO DAILY TIMES,] As was predicted some time ago, the question of Civil Service Pensions has again forced itself upon the attention of the Assembly. The indefinite and constantly increasing charge upon the revenue which the existing system cre-= ates became a cause of alarm in the face of financial difficulties. According to last advices the matter is shelved for the present. It ought to have been definitely considered by the Govern? ment during the recess, and a proposition prepared for consideration by the Assembly. Some attention was paid to it, and the question of pn> viding a fund out of which pensions could be paid, was reported on, at the request of the Colonial Secretary, by the Civil Service Board, The Government, howe\er, took no step in the matter, and it v. as left to Mr Reader Wood to bring it before the House. The discussion which occurred upon his motion drew from Ministers a promise that a comprehensive measure should be brought down next year, which, whilst respecting the rights which have grown up under the Act of 1866, would make more reasonable arrangements for the future. Mr Vogel's amendment to this effect upon the resolution proposed by Mr Wood was accepted—not however without some grumbling—both sides of the House agreeing that prompt steps were absolutely necessary. The first Act which provided for pensions being granted to officers of the Civil Service on retirement was passed in 1858, and was in such a form that no rights grew up under it, although no doubt, a reasonable ex* pectation of such a provision for old age was created—one which the Government could not overlook in the case of any officer who had discharged his duties faithfully over a long period of years. The Act was indeed explicit in its provisions, and one of its clauses declared that nothing contained in it should be construed as gi v ing any person an absolute right to a pension. Moreover, its provisions only extended to officers who entered the service after it came into operation, Subsequently, this Act was amended so as to extend the power of the Governor, an.d permit of pensions being given to civil servants whose appointments dated from before 1858, Up to 1866 it was left entirelr to the discretion of the Governor- to graut or withhold a pension. The discretion was probably found to be not a pleasant one to exercise. Whether from that cause, or on account of a change ot views on the subject, the Legislature was induced, in 1866, to pas:? an Act of a very different character. An absolute right to a pension, under by no means stringent was conferred upon all civij servants who.sp salaries were directly

•appropriated by the General Assembly, ,or paid in accordance with the provisions of any Act passed by that lx)&y. Any officer who has passed the age of sixty years is entitled under it .1o retire upon a superannuation allowance. The experience of the working .of this Act which has been already acquired, justified Mx Wood in stating that "in the course of fifteen or sixteen years from the present time the fund required to pay pensions and retiring allowances would amount to something like one-sixth of the whole sum voted for salaries." Quoting from the report naa4e to the Government by the Civil Service Board, he added, <" A very useful table was attached to the report he had just lead from which placed the whole thing in a plaiu and simple light. The statement showed the amounts actually paid as allowances under the various Civil Service Acts, dining the years 1859-60 to 187071, inclusive —that was to say, from the time the first Pension Act was passed. The Jesuits of the table were as follows ::■—ln the year 1860 the sum of £lB6 was paid in pensions, &c, next vear £2£o, then .£335, then £368, then £403; then in 1866, £2,139, then £2,533, then £2,833, then £5,231, then £5,893; and in 1870-71 no less than £7,327. Thus by the system now in operation, the amount paid in pensions doubled itself every three or four years." This shows that from an extreme of caution, the Legislature has bv the Act of 1866 run to an opposite extreme of liberality. By this liberality the revenues of the country are charged in a manner which they are manifestly unable to bear, and it is absolutely necessarv that the whole system should be reconsidered.

We do not hold with tho>e who say that no provision of this sort should he made for officers of the Civil Service. *' If the prudence of servants was not to he relied upon, it was not the business of the House to provide for them," was the dictum of the gentleman from whom we have already quoted, we do not agree wilh it. Those who enter the Civil Sendee are or ought to he, effectually debarred from many methods of making provision for their later years which are open to otheis. The salaries given to most of them are very moderate indeed, and the prospect of promotion is still more moderate. After spending any considerable time in (he employ of (he Government men ,are unfitted for looking out for something more profitable and it is not at all desirable that the temptation to do so should be prevalent, because in such •case the country would be constantly losing the services of its best trained officers. Nothing will be found more instrumental in rei during the members of the Chil Service content with Their lot than the prospect of a reason able retiring allowance when advancing years render the duies of office to onerous for them. The propriety of granting such allowances has been re£Ggnii»ed in every country, and we do not fear that Mr Wood will be largely followed in his desire to do away with the system here. At the same time there must be a limit put upon the financial burden which these allowances entail upon the country, and care must be taken not to put in the way of men who are quite capable of continuing in the service temptation to retire, merely because a respectable income for the rest of their liyes accrues to them on their doing so. Both these evils result from the existing system, and we trust that it will be found quite possible to be reasonably liberal to the Civil Service without giving permanence to them.